According to a guy who reviewed a different preamp for the MM stingray at BGRA the MM just run passive sounds great. I dont know why it shouldnt sound good that way too. I do know that I like the combination pup and preamp on my sterling which is plain stock stuff.

It can run perfict as a passive,the only difference an active gives is the volume boost & more attack (grind,brightness etc),in other word you get a bit of extra growl.I used to use an active bass & the tone was awesome but it was unreliable & broke down a couple of times(once in a gig)as well as going through endless batteries,im back to passive basses now & i use an old Fender P & a Fernandes J style bass & they both do an awesome job for me so i dont miss the old active bass.

my 8 string has a custom SD music man style pickup on it (8 strings wide ) and it sounds killer. that pickup has an incredible tone, and a very high output. i have it wired to a 3 way selector, and it gets the tonal diversity that the MM pups are known for. very cool.